I don't really have the desire to listen to loud noisy music anymore. I'm mostly into trip hop and ambient stuff now. And in the last couple of months I've discovered lounge / bossa nova. If I do listen to rock it's mostly mellow Britpop / dreampop type stuff.

I think that's why I prefer How To Destroy Angels to Nine Inch Nails. Because with HTDA Trent is making more downtempo / ambient sounding stuff. For the first time I've actually found a project that Trent Reznor has been involved in that I genuinely like.

I can't listen to half the pumpkins stuff anymore. Its just too "heavy" for my tastes. Well basically by heavy i mean (cause SP was never technically very heavy at all) heavily distorted guitars do nothing for me anymore and haven't in a long time. It's like yeah, yeah you crank up the fuzz and hit power chords, that started being boring around the time nickelback started to do it (actually even before that).

It's just been gay sounding shit for me for a good while now(80s pop/synthpop/new wave/post punk)

At least i haven't started to like Sting's solo career. That's always what i associated reaching middle age with (not that i am middle age yet). If i ever do, i'll know it's time to jump off something high.

I can't listen to half the pumpkins stuff anymore. Its just too "heavy" for my tastes. Well basically by heavy i mean (cause SP was never technically very heavy at all) heavily distorted guitars do nothing for me anymore and haven't in a long time. It's like yeah, yeah you crank up the fuzz and hit power chords, that started being boring around the time nickelback started to do it (actually even before that).

It's just been gay sounding shit for me for a good while now(80s pop/synthpop/new wave/post punk)

At least i haven't started to like Sting's solo career. That's always what i associated reaching middle age with (not that i am middle age yet). If i ever do, i'll know it's time to jump off something high.

What kind of stuff did you like when you were younger that was so different?

Depends on your definition of younger; teen years was SP along with bullshit like Bush and Hootie and the Blowfish, lol

Early 20's was all Kill Hannah, ambient, glitch, instrumental, along with just some regular indie shit

Mid-20's I got way more into shoegaze, indie w/ electronic elements, some post punk etc

Late-20's to now I'm like give me noisey stuff like APTBS, DFHVN, weird shit like Ice Balloons, shoegaze like Ceremony and Screen Vinyl Image, and psych (Black Angels, Warlocks, etc). But I still like a generic indie album every now and then.

Well basically by heavy i mean (cause SP was never technically very heavy at all) heavily distorted guitars do nothing for me anymore and haven't in a long time.

is this a joke? I know SP was never like a heavy metal band, but at least 50% of their output is hard rock, and at their most frantic moments they are as heavy as anybody. insane energy in the early days

Yet i prefer Solsbury Hill to any solo Sting song. Though i will concede that was some reason, i also kinda like Fields of Gold. But it might be because it reminds me of my teen years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbreegull

is this a joke? I know SP was never like a heavy metal band, but at least 50% of their output is hard rock, and at their most frantic moments they are as heavy as anybody. insane energy in the early days

Well exactly, not heavy compared to say, death metal.

It's heavy enough. But to any metal fan, not very much. I just didnt want to make it seem like i thought SP was the heaviest band i ever heard....

True story: 1999, heard this song on the radio and thought it was "fields of bodies" in the lyrics during that one part of the song and so j called up the soft rock station and asked what song was the one that went "something something fields of bodies" and he had no idea what I was talking about.

FFWD to 2000, Tracy Chapman and Sting is my first concert. Free ticket. Still have the shirt, I believe.

It's heavy enough. But to any metal fan, not very much. I just didnt want to make it seem like i thought SP was the heaviest band i ever heard....

obviously we're getting into meaningless subjective definitions, but I don't think veering farther and farther into atonality and torture noises makes a band "heavier." Sabbath is the heaviest band to me, because the power of the guitars and the drums feels like an endless tidal wave of rock insanity pummeling me into the bottom of the ocean. SP comes pretty close to this at times. The more "metal" a band gets, the more I usually feel the power of the music is gutted by toneless, thin, staticy guitars through solid state amps, indecipherable screaming, and gimmicky shitty double-kick speed drums. It's almost like you try so hard you just completely miss the mark. When everything is turned up to level 10 insanity at all times, you lose the context and the music doesn't seem powerful anymore